We went to a gathering in Kuala Lumpur to meet a couple’s new baby and ended up meeting nudists in Malaysia. I had missed a fairly important detail about the evening, thanks to a conversation about parks. In my defense, […]
Cua Dai Beach erosion changed what should have been a simple trip to the sea near Hoi An. Vivi and I found sandbags, excavators, and coastal protection work alongside the remaining beach. It was hard to look at the shoreline […]
The Notre-Dame fire on April 15, 2019, left me thinking about the environment as much as architecture. Watching a landmark burn was horrible. Watching the reaction raised an uncomfortable question: why does the destruction of one familiar building unite us […]
Editor’s Note: Vivi’s account reflects our own visit and the guides we met then. Visitor information below was checked in October 2026; confirm access and tour arrangements before traveling. Cameron Highlands was easiest to love in the morning. I woke […]
My Halong Bay tour left me with two very different memories: limestone islands rising out of the water, and floating trash that kept pulling my attention back to the surface. I had wanted to see this part of Vietnam for […]
Editor’s Note: Updated October 2026. The photographs and personal observations reflect our earlier trip. Current visiting information is listed separately in the practical details below. Cameron Highlands gave us two very different trips in the same place. We walked through […]
A hipster cafe can be a wonderful thing: good coffee, old wooden chairs, music you have never heard before and an interior that looks as though someone rescued half of it from their grandmother’s attic. When everything comes together, the […]
Why is Singapore so strict about drugs? There is a serious answer involving public safety, deterrence, and the harm caused by drug trafficking. Walking around the city, I came up with a less serious theory: Singapore already supplies enough strange […]
My first nudist experience took a little convincing. I am shy around people I don’t know, blush easily, and had always kept my swimsuit on, even when we went swimming in the sea on hot summer nights. Being naked around […]
Watching three young storks spread their wings in a nest in Prekmurje, I was enjoying what looked like a cheerful family scene. Then our hotel’s owner told us that storks sometimes kill their own chicks. It was an unsettling thing […]